Sera Temple
Sera Monastery is one of the ‘great three’ Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. The origin of the name ‘Sera’ is not certain, but it may derive from the fact that the original site was surrounded by ‘Wild Roses’ . The original Sera monastery was in Lhasa, Tibet, about 5 km north of the Jokang in Lhasa.
Sera was founded in 1419, by Jamchen Chojey (Sakya Yeshe), a disciple of Tsong Khapa.
Norbulingka Park
Norbulingka (literally: “The Jewelled Park”) is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa, Tibet which served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the PRC takeover in the late 1950s.
The park was built by the Seventh Dalai Lama beginning in 1755, and became the summer residence during the reign of the Eighth Dalai Lama.
The earliest building is the Gesang Pozhang Palace built by Kelzang Gyatso. The ‘New Palace’ was begun in 1954 by the present Dalai Lama and completed in 1956. It contains chapels, gardens, fountains and pools. To the west the Kalsang Potang built by Seventh Dalai Lama is “a beautiful example of Yellow Hat architecture. Its fully restored throne room is also of interest.”
The gardens are a favourite picnic spot and provides a beautiful venue for theatre, dancing and festivals, particularly the Sho Dun or ‘Yoghurt Festival’, at the beginning of August, with families camping in the grounds for days surrounded by colourful makeshift windbreaks of rugs and scarves and enjoying the height of summer weather.
The palace is located three kilometers west of the Potala Palace which was the winter palace. Additional buildings were added to the park during the first half of the 20th century. In 2001, UNESCO inscribed Norbulingka on its World Heritage Site as part of the “Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace”.
A street of Lhassa
Lhasa, (Chinese: 拉萨) sometimes spelled Lasa, is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China. Lhasa is located at the foot of Mount Gephel.
Traditionally, the city is the seat of the Dalai Lama and the capital of Tibet. It is the location of the Potala and Norbulingka palaces (both are included in a World Heritage Site), and in Tibetan Buddhism is regarded as the holiest centre in Tibet. The city is home to 257,400 people as of the 2004 census estimate.
Lhasa literally means “place of the gods”, although ancient Tibetan documents and inscriptions demonstrate that the place was called Rasa, which means “goat’s place”, until the early 7th century.
Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra, also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia.
From its origin in southwestern Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River, it flows across southern Tibet to break through the Himalayas in great gorges and into Arunachal Pradesh where it is known as Dihang. It flows southwest through the Assam Valley as Brahmaputra and south through Bangladesh as the Jamuna. There it merges with the Ganges to form a vast delta. About 1,800 miles (2,900 km) long, the river is an important source for irrigation and transportation. Its upper course was long unknown, and its identity with the Yarlung Tsangpo was only established by exploration in 1884-86. This river is often called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river. In Bangladesh the river merges with the Ganges and splits into two: the Hugli and Padma River. When it merges with the Ganges it forms the world’s largest delta, the Sunderbans. The Sunderbans is known for tigers and mangroves. While most Indian and Bangladeshi rivers bear female names, this river has a rare male name, as it means “son of Brahma” in Sanskrit (putra means “son”).
The Brahmaputra is navigable for most of its length. The lower reaches are sacred to Hindus. The river is prone to catastrophic flooding in spring when the Himalayan snows melt. It is also one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore.
Samye Monastery
The Samye Monastery or Samye Gompa is the first Buddhist monastery built in Tibet, constructed in approximately 775 AD under the patronage of King Trisong Detsen of Tibet who sought to revitalize Buddhism, which had declined since its introduction by King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. The monastery is located in Dranang, Shannan Prefecture.
amye Monastery is laid out on the shape of a giant mandala, with the main temple representing the legendary Mount Meru in the centre. Other buildings stand at the corners and cardinal points of the main temple, representing continents and other features of tantric Buddhist cosmology.
The main temple is full of Tibetan religious art in both mural and statue form, as well as some important relics. Many Tibetan Buddhists come on pilgrimage to Samye, some taking weeks to make the journey.
Tombs of Tibetan Kings
Located at chong Gye, the tumuli of the Tibetan kings is 30 km from Tsedang. Buried here the kings, the ministers and the royal concubines from the 29th Tuboking, to the last. It is also the only tumuli group in Tibet. From all of the tombs, the most remarkable one is King Songtsan Gampo’s.
According to historical records there are five underground chambers containing statues of Songtsan Gampo, Shakyamuni and Padmasambava with great quantities of gold, silver, pears and agates as funeral objects. The coffin itself is said to have been laid in the central chamber and to its left side it is said to a suit of amour worn by Songtsan Gampo on expedition; to its right side to have laid knights and battle horses made of solid gold as the retinue of Songtsan Gampo after his demise. Buried at the head of the coffin is a coral statue of Lord Loyak Gyalo, whose function is supposed to give light to the dead king and at the foot of it is a cache of pears weighing 35 kilograms, wrapped in silk, as Songtsan Gampo’s share of wealth.
Thirty third King Songtsan Gampo, moved his capital to Lhasa, then unified the whole Tibet. In order to cherish the memory of their hometown and the relatives, also ancestor Kings from the 33 on wards were buried back to Chonggye. This is main reason why the tumuli is as big as3.85 million square meters.
Yongbulakhang Temple
Yumbulagang or Yumbu Lhakhang is an ancient fort in the district of Nêdong in the vicinity of Zêtang in the county Shannan, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. A legend counts Yumbulagang as the first building in Tibet.
According to a legend of followers of the Bön religion, Yumbulagang was erected in the second century B.C. for the first Tibetan king Nyatri Tsenpo, descended from the sky. During the reign of the 28th king Lha Thothori Nyantsen in the fifth century a golden Stupa, a jewel (and/or a form to the manufacture of dough-Stupas) and a Sutra that no one could read fell from the sky on the roof of Yumbulagang; a voice from the sky announced: “in five generations one shall come, that understands its meaning!” Later, Yumbulagang became the summer palace of the 33rd king Songtsen Gampo and princess Wencheng. After Songtsen Gampo had transferred his seat to Lhasa, Yumbulagang became a shrine and under the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, a monastery of the Gelugpa school.
Tsethang Village
Tsetang (also Tsedang or Tsethang) is a small city located 183 km southeast of Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
Tsetang was the capital of Yarlung and, as such, a place of great importance. In the 19th century it is said to have contained some 1,000 houses, a bazaar, a gompa and a fort.
It is now the capital of Shannan (Chinese for ‘South of the Mountains’) prefecture and the second-largest town in the Ü, region. It is at an elevation of 3,100 metres (10,170 ft) and has a population of about 52,000. It is only about 4 km to the northeast of the town of Nêdong but they have now basically merged into one city.
Sichuan hotpot
Hot pot, or less commonly Chinese fondue, refers to several Chinese varieties of steamboat stew. It consists of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter.
One of the most famous variations is the Sichuan or Szechuan “má là” (traditional Chinese: 麻辣 — “numb and spicy”) hot pot, to which a special spice known as huā jiāo (traditional Chinese: 花椒 — “flower pepper” or Sichuan Pepper) is added. It creates a sensation on the tongue that is both spicy and burns and numbs slightly, almost like carbonated beverages. It was usual to use a variety of different meats as well as sliced mutton fillet. A Sichuan hotpot[1]is markedly different from the types eaten in other parts of China. Quite often the differences lie in the meats used, the type of soup base, and the sauces and condiments used to flavor the meat. The cities of Chengdu and Chongqing are also famous for their different kinds of huǒ guō. “Sì Chuān huǒ guō” could be used to distinguish from simply “huǒ guō” in cases when people refer to the “Northern Style Hot Pot” in China. “Shuān yáng ròu”, Chinese: 涮羊肉 (instant-boiled lamb) could be viewed as representative of this kind of food, which does not focus on the soup base.
